Fire Emblem - Fuuin no Tsurugi (english translation) Review by: Kirbybanjo - 9.2/10
The Strongest GBA Fire EmblemHello Ladies and Gentlemen, this is my review for the Fire Emblem Game, also known as FE6. FE6 was originally released only in Japan, and via the wonderful technologies of Translating and Rom hacking is now available on this site. With this review, I hope you can understand whether or not this game if for you
Overall:
9.2,
This game is the best Fire Emblem in the series for the Game Boy/Game Boy advanced, but lacks some of the basic mechanics that make what we would expect out of a Fire Emblem game. The presence of useless Jagen type characters, in addition to a vast majority of the characters not having promotions and or being viable (I'm looking at you chapter 3 recruits, all of you), makes this game difficult to stomach, and some of your early characters feel like they should be discarded after picking them up, as opposed to most FE games, where the starter characters with the exception of the paladin are always useful to the late game (herein referenced as Jagen's). At the same time, the transition to the mid game characters is the strength of the game, as many of these characters break the standard troupes that we see in the lame story writing of the early to mid Fire Emblems. The good aspects of this game, however, are the strategy, and immense story/support conversations with about a dozen different character endings, and very good conversations, while mixing useful unit decisions into this game that aren't there in other games. This is not a sacred stones where you can just face roll with your Lords + Seth and just win the game, but at the same time isn't as stupidly hard as the Thracia 766, wherein a bad RNG level can really screw you over. The game gives you enough play that if you have a series of bad level ups you wont be handicapped in the late game, and at the same time will still be competent throughout the mid game without feeling punished for bad luck. Additionally, the massive cast of characters, and the unusually large maps (15-16 is the average) really sets the bar high for tactics, and healing in this game is actually useful and necessary. The biggest drawbacks of this game are the loss of your early characters who don't scale well, and the mediocre graphics.
TLDR: Long story with lots of interactions, high replay value, and reasonable difficulty, with awful sprite based graphics
Graphics : 5
First off the maps and characters are rendered very much in the 8 bit style on a 32 bit system. The maps and characters appear needlessly dated, and it doesn't serve to add much to the character of the game. The generic looking battle animations are a weak point of the series, and continue to be in this Fire Emblem Title. The GBA has far more potential than this looking at its Sonic games for the system, and the use of poorly animated colors and sprites gets annoying fast, it is a major weak point of the game. The character portraits and screen-backgrounds when the game chooses to use them (the mini cut scenes if you will), look fantastic however, and it really shows the engine and platform the game is wasting this time around, it is very unfortunate and one of the biggest reasons this game isn't rated as highly as it deserves to be (9.9)
Sound : 10.
While the sound will sound familiar to many players, the crescendos and diminuendos of the game serve well with the tides of battle, and many weapons/bosses have their own unique themes. These themes especially the riders of Bern theme sounds incredibly good, and the sound assets for the weapons sound as they would be expected to which is semi-cartoony, but they still sound ok. The wide arrays of themes and music are very rewarding, including the "victory" theme at the end of each level. It is a lot of fun to listen to the soundtrack, and it sounds appropriately epic, especially when using the legendary weapons/fighting crucial bosses. The Bad guy theme is still also pretty awesome in the miniature cut scenes
Addictiveness: 10
there is a lot to do in this game world and it really shows. There are multiple unlocks, and it just feels fun. This may be subjective, but if you like the command and conquer aspects of this game, the maps don't get old, and there is always a reason to play it again (3rd or 4th play through at the time of this review). Again this may be biased as I loved all of the FE games with the exception of the god awful sacred stones. Upon completion I believe this version of the Rom has the maniac mode, but I'm not sure, and in that mode bosses are harder, and min/maxing/supporting are far more important than in earlier titles.
Story: 10
Fire Emblem is known for its immerse story and this is no different. Most people who rate this about a 7-8 have not seen the support conversations or read them, to understand the massive amount of depth in between characters. For example, Roy can have over 20 support conversations (I think its 25), with a maximum of 5 each play through, and they affect multiple aspects of the final story readings for the characters. Most importantly you feel attached to the characters in this game, they all seem human, and this game tries to avoid the many troupes that the game itself established. While at its core its the story of a young prince saving the kingdom there are many twists and turns, and not all characters are as good/evil as they may seem.
Depth: 9
Not as much to this one as the last FE titles, since you cannot control promotes, they don't happen automatically, and there are many units that don't promote at all rather annoyingly. Still it has a lot of solid depth with min maxing, and stat bonuses. There should be enough here for a deep game. Also it is insanely long, most plays clock in at about probably 40 minutes a chapter, so just on your first clear (assuming you don't wipe or lose a character), which you will trust me, there's about 12 hours of solid game time. If you are looking for a perfect clear ie no units lost than it will take longer, although the space bar speed up function does cut the game play drastically.
Difficulty : 6
Not terribly hard, but not a cakewalk, if you played the sequel (prequel) to this game, than you wont have many problems with it, but its not terribly hard nor is it incredibly easy. The one time this game becomes nightmarishly hard, is if you use units with poor growths which can be looked up online. Pro-Tip: don't use anyone you get in chapter 2 they scale terribly
Graphics
5 Sound
10 Addictive
10 Depth
9 Story
10 Difficulty
6
User Notice 
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